[Closed] Sri Lanka - Any must dos\must avoids?

Kandy, tea plantation and stick fishing.

Machetes, chilli in your machete wounds and the police

Based on 5 years ago. Unawatuna is a nice spot for relaxation on the beach. (Some limited surfing here, shallow reef break, hire/borrow a board from one of the local lads for a small fee)

The Bats in the park in Kandy are freakish, but were a highlight, (a good place to visit a tea plantation as well.)

Sigiriya was very good and worth a visit as was pinnawela elephant orphanage.

$50 per day got us a car and driver, he also booked us cheaper but nice accomodation. email Ranjan at travelsrilanka@hotmail.com if you want to go down that route.

Ahhh! The memories. 😉

Where are you staying?

Sigiriya was very good and worth a visit as was pinnawela elephant orphanage.

Agreed!

cheers guys, I'll try and get the Sigiriya\Pinnawela onto the itinerary.

I'm not staying anywhere yet, I'll just turn up and see how it goes. at the moment the swell looks pretty consistant, so I might do travelling first, or surfing first. Not sure 🙂 sounds like the hills in the center of the island have the most to do. I'd like to get a trek in as well, so for that I'll probably just ask around when I get there

Whats the mossie situation like? need to deet up?

OOOOHHH Very lucky!!!!!
One word "POKIE" or to give you their full name [i]Poecilotheria[/i]

Absolutely stunning spiders but are becoming worryingly rare so don't harm any. There are quite a few different variations of pokies in Sri Lanka but if you look for [i]Poecilotheria ornata[/i] you can't go far wrong.
They are very active and should be quite easy to find. Just don't get too close as their venom is reportedly quite complex(though not known to be deadly to humans).
Anyhoo before I go on too much this is a [i]P.ornata[/i]just so you know what to look for.

[img] ?t=1271684642http://[/img]

P.S. They grow to about 20cm-23cm so should be fairly easy to find.
P.P.S They can live and hunt in groups too so watch where you stand or what you lean against.

Sigiriya +10
Elephant orphanage too +10 .. but we booked a local safari with some dodgy looking geezers in a pickup that turned out to be far far better, seeing the wild ones out for their evening stroll and helping themselves to the local wells.

Temple of the Tooth in Kandy is a must see imho

Polonnuwara (spelling?) - ancient city ruins to wander about. Warning - local feet are used to standing on 60 degree granite, I expect yours are not! As some bits are still active Buddhist temples, you must remove your foot wear - just look for the first bit of shade where the rock is cooler!

There's a bridge in Kandy where they filmed Indy + Temple of Doom, worth seeing if only for how it looks nothing like it does in the film! There's usually a fella there who was a stunt extra and will fling himself into the river for a few quid - always a good piccy.

Trincomalee for surf

I didn't get bitten much, and they normally love me big time.

Oh also -

Brief gardens - worth a look around if you're in the are.
Kandy Botanical gardens - likewise.
Coconut milk from the side of the road. But not Durian, your taxi driver won't let you back in.

Luckily I didn't see any Pokies 🙂

Getting pretty jealous right now though 😀

Surfed Arugam Bay, peanuts, elephant farm and a few secret spots in april/may after the tsunami. Great times. in Arugam Bay see if you can stay at Sooorya's place, dead good food and a nice hostel block thingy out the back.

Then we surfed all round hikkaduwa, which was great but much more touristy..

Great memories were, monkies on the roof, elephants in the road at night (its good to travel at night as its ruddy hot in the day), coconut milk from a coconut, hot roti's fro breakfast. And load more. Would defo go back.

Scary memories were getting fronted up by the tamil tigers near arugam bay, armed and scary. Turns out they were nice as pie and just didn't want us in this area as they were on manoeuvres and we were at risk. Not unlike the dartmoor red flag system when they are firing, but blokes in cheap surf shorts with AK47's are a bit intimidating at first..

Not too bad for mossies.